Slicing machines are used in actual practice to cut slices of food such as, for instance, cold cuts, meat or cheese. The rotating blade is a true source of danger. For this reason, the goal is to design the slicing machines in such a way that the user can operate the machine as safely as possible. Particularly when the blade is being cleaned, there is a greater risk of injury, so that efforts are aimed at covering the cutting edge of the blade to the greatest extent possible while it is being cleaned.
International patent application WO 9605952 A1 discloses such a slicing machine in which the carriage for the food to be sliced can only be flipped open for cleaning purposes if the cutting thickness setting of the stop plate is less than zero. When the cutting thickness is set to less than zero, the stop plate moves in front of the cutting edge of the blade and covers it. This largely eliminates the risk of injury by the cutting edge. A bolt that can be moved linearly, that is joined to the carriage foot by a guide and that interacts via a pivoting lever having an adjustment dial for adjusting the stop plate prevents the carriage from swinging out. A drawback, however, is that this design is relatively complicated to construct.
An aspect of the invention is based on the objective of creating a slicing machine that has a safe cleaning position in which the cutting edge is covered, that has a simple construction and especially that can be made with just a few parts.